Maine buys system to route school buses

By eSchool News

October 7th, 2009

The Maine Department of Education has signed a contract with two out-of-state companies for software that will help school districts design and manage student transportation systems, reports the Bangor Daily News. The five-year, $1.3 million contract with Core Education and Consulting Solutions of Atlanta and Transfinder Corp. of Schenectady, N.Y., will provide school districts in Maine with a way to tailor their transportation systems to meet their specific needs, a move that should reduce transportation costs, according to Education Department spokesman David Connerty-Marin. The department will cover the costs involved and will make the program available to all school districts throughout the state. The $1.3 million includes the startup costs and maintenance over the five-year period, and it will save money for districts that have used transportation software systems in the past and have had to pay those yearly fees, he said. Core will manage the project and will develop a web-enabled platform through which school districts can tap into Transfinder’s software for student routing and transportation. There will be no cost to the districts, nor will they have to install new software…